Nail distributor



Oct. 27, 1925- .1,558,481

A. E HUDSON NAIL DISTRIBUTOR Filed Feb. 12- 13923 Patented 27, T9250barren stares" PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT E. HUDSON, OF BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T UNITED SHOE MA-CHINERY GOfiPORATIQN, 01* PATERSON, NEVJ JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEWJERSEY.

NAIL DISTRIBUTOR.

Application filed February 12, 1.923. Serial No. 618,591.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that l, ALBERT E. Honsorn;

a citizen of the "United States, residing at Beverly, in the county oiEssex State 5 of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements inNail Distributors, oi which the following description, in connectionwith i the accompanying drawings, is a specifier tion, like referencecharacters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

My invention relates to nail-distributors,

and more especially concerns, in such apparatus, the discharge mechanismgenerally organized in the manner disclosed in the application forLetters Patent iiled in the name of Frederick J. Balcom on September 2,1921, and bearing the Serial Number 98,074. In this arrangement, thedischarg 2 ing member or rotatable roll, which receives nails from araceway and delivers them in successive charges to the machine supplied,

. has, co-operating with it, a barv or other stop member, whichtemporarily retains the nails upon the roll until a charge hasaccumulated, and then yields under the influence or" the rotation oisaid roll to permit delivery. The stop-bar. is adjustable, in anapproximately horizontal direction, toward and from nail-receivingopenings in the roll to properly position nails or dill'erent lengths,and, normally, its inner edge lies.

over a nail-directing surface, which continues the support aliorded bythe walls of the openings in the roll. It has been found desirable tohave not only the openings, but also the continuing walls, inclineddownwardly in the direction of delivery to facilitate the advance of thenails during their reception by the roll and their positioning by thebar, and to prevent accidental displacement by changes in their course.This inclination causes the directing surface to diverge downwardly fromthe plane to its independentadjustment.

charge device of the-character mentioned,

for such a relation between the stop member livery of the; nails. Toattain this result, the stop member or bar is not only movable towardand from the discharge device or roll in accordance with the length ofthe nails acted upon, but also in another direction, so as to controlits normal relation to the directing surface, and thus compensate forthe divergence between the member and the co-operating surface of theroll. The stop member is shown as being a composite device, including abody-portion or plate adjustable toward and from the openings in thedischarge device, and a stop-bar, which receives the contact of thenails and which may be adjusted upon the body-portion. Preferably,between this body-portion and stop-bar is a carrier member or slide,arranged to yield upon the body-portion, and to which the stop-bar maybe pivoted for This interposed yieldable member permits of the actuationof the stop member by the dischargeroll in its rotation.

A particular form which this invention may assume is illustrated in theaccompanymg drawing. 1

Fig.1 being a side elevation of theforward portion of anail-distributing apparatus to which my improved discharge mechanism isapplied;

Fig. 2, a broken top plan view of the same part of the apparatus;

Fig. 3, a similar view, enlarged, showing a. portion oi. theapparatusonly;

4, an enlarged vertical section on the line of Fig. 2, illustrating theelements in the nail-receiving position; and Fig. e a like view, showingthe discharging. posltion.

The general nail-distributing organization may be similar to thatdisclosed in Patent No. 1,005,308, Pope, October 10,1911. This includesa nail-conveyor or raceway 10 arranged to oscillate upon a frame 12 andprovided with inclined grooves or nailavays i l carrying the nails froma drum or container (not illustrated) in series in each of the ways, asappears at N in Fig. 4 of the drawing, to the discharge mechanism D. Thedischarge device proper consists of a roll 16 journaled horizontallv forrotation upon the forward end of the conveyorframe. Thisroll isoscillated from the nailreceivlng position, shown in Fig. 4:, to thenail-discharging position, illustrated in Fig.

5, by a crank-arm 18 fixed to the spindle of the roll and operatedthrough a link 20 and a lever 21 from a cam 22 upon shaft 23, this shaftbeing constantly rotated while the apparatus is inaction. (lo-operatingwith the nail-ways are the usual stoplingers '24, oscillated from a camon the discharge rol'hspindle to alternately release the nails to permittheir travel down the nail-ways to the discharge mechanism, and

to check this advance while said discharge mechanism is operating.

Extending longitudinally of the axis of the discharge-roll is a recess25, which, approxii'nately, has the form produced by removing t'rorn theroll a sector of about 105 degrees. In the normal or nail-receivingposition 01 the roll i), a wall 26 of the recess is inclineddoi'vnwardly from the horizontal, while the other wall 28 extendssubstantially vertically. 'Jpening through the wall 28 and through theopposite side otthe'roll is a series of transverse perforations 30,corresponding in number to the nail-ways, being alined with them, andhaving the same inclination when the discharge roll occupies thenail-receiving position. Th s inclination is continued by grooves 31 inthe directing suri ace 2, a convenient manner of producing these groovesbeing by drilling them simultaneously with the openings 30. lit will beseen that when the series N of nails are released by the elevation ofthe lingers 2 1-, a continuous downwardly sloping surface is afforded,along which the nails travel until they are stopped by the devzcehereinafter described. Since there is no change in the direction oftheir travel, they proceed, witliout liability to 31, which at theopposite extreme position or the roll,

Qwhich is to be supplied.

recess 25, so t displacement by the vibration of the machine, thismaintenance of their true relation leing aided by the presence of thegrooves ord them lateral support. In

alined ment of Art each end of tee bar 32 is anarm 8%, pivoted at theopposite e3:-

tremities of a carrier member or bar 38 situated just in front of thebar 32, and having a forwardly extending portion 40 arranged to slide ina wav 12 in a plate 44, 't'urnishing the body-portion of the stop deviceand carried upon the conveyor-frame. 'lhe plate 44 is mounted foradjustment toward and from the discharge-roll, to change the distancebetween the surface at or" the stop-bar and the openings 30 in the roll,by a shaft as, journaled in the conveyor-frame, arranged to be turned byhand-wheel 48, and having pinions 50, 5O meshing with series of raclrteeth 52, 52 upon the upper The stop-bar is pressed ings two of whichmay be employed, these springs being contained in bores at the outeredge of the plate. The forward extremities of the bores are threaded toreceive screw-plugs 56, against which the inner ends of the springsabut. By turning these plugs, the "force with which the springs resistthe movement of the stopbar may be varied. The intersection of the wall28 with the cylindrical surface 01 the roll 16 furnishes a cam orcontactprojection 58 arranged to strike, in the oscillation of the roll,upon the stop-surface 34 of the bar. This engagement forces the stop-barand carrier-bar away from the roll, as is illustrated in 5, the springs'54 yielding to permit this, until the path of the nails carried uponthe surface 26 is cleared, and they drop into the deliverytubes.

Threaded through the center of the rear portion of the carrier-bar 38 isa vertical screw 60, having a finger-piece or head 62, by which it maybe rotated to raise or lower it in the bar. It may be fixed in itsadjusted position by a lock-nut 64 bearing against the upper surface ofthe bar. At its lower extremity is a flange or enlargement 66, the edgeof which enters a recess in the adjacent wall of the stop-bar. When thelocknut is loosened, the screw may be turned, so that its portion (36,acting upon the bar, will either raise or lower this, and thus changeits normal relation to the surtace 26 of the discharge-roll. When thedesired adjustment is obtained, the screw may be locked in position bythe nut.

In using this discharge device, the stopbar 32 is adjusted insubstantially hori- Zontal direction by moving the body-portion 4A-through the gearing 50, 52 until the wall 3% is in such a position thatthe contact of the forward ends of the nails, they lie in the openings30 and grooves 31, will bring the opposite extremities just outside theperiphery of the roll to hold the succeeding nails in the ways 1 spacedfrom said roll. This is as illustrated in Fig. l. If a shorter nail isto be operated upon, the shaft 4.6 will be turned to bring the wall 34nearer to the forward ends of the openings 30, or if longer nails are tobe used, the stop member will be moved by its gearing in the oppositedirection. If the first-mentioned change in location of the stop-bar isto be made, the screw will be turned to lift the bar, the finaladjustment being such that the lower edge of the bar will just clear thesurface 26 between the grooves 31. When adjustment is made for a longernail, the stop-bar will be lowered, the space between its lower edge andthe surface 26 being kept constant for all horizontal positions. As the-roll oscillates in the direction of the arrows in Figs. f and 5 todischarge the nails, the camprojection 58, operating against thestopsurface 3%, forces the bar forward, the springs 54 yieldin Thus, theroll moves the bar out of its path, as is particularly shown in Fig. 5,leaving said roll free to complete its oscillation. This at once carriesthe stop-surface away from the extremities of the nails resting in thegrooves 51, so that there is nothing to prevent their discharge into thereceiving conduits, into which they fall by gravity. As the reversemovement of the roll occurs, the springs 54 cause the bar to follow theprojection 58 back to the normal position, whereupon the nail-receivingand discharging operation is repeated.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a nail-distributor, a movable discharge device for the nails, astop member for temporarily retaining the nails upon the device andbeing movable toward and from said device, and means arranged to movethe stop member in another direction.

2. In a nail-distributor, a movable discharge device for the nails, astop member for temporarily retaining the nails upon the device andbeing movable toward and from said device, means for efiecting themovement of the stop member, said member also being movable under theinfluence of the discharge device, and means arranged to move the stopmember in another direction.

3. In a nail-distributor, a movable discharge device having a directingsurface over which the nails pass, a member located over the directingsurface for temporarily stoppingthe travel of the nails upon suchsurface and being movable to free said nails for delivery, and meansarranged to control the normal distance of the stop member above thedirecting surface.

l. In a nail-distributor, a movable dischar 'e device having a surfacedownwardly inclined in the direction of discharge of the nails, a stopmember cooperating with the surface and being movable in a directiondiverging therefrom, and means arranged to move the stop member towardand from the surface to compensate for such divergence.

5. In a nailwlistributor, a movable discharge device for the nails, astop device having a body-portion, means for adjusting the body-portionhorizontally toward and from the discharge device, a member mounted uponthe body-portion and with which the nails contact, and means arranged toadjust the position of the member vertically upon the body-portion.

6. In a nail-distributor, a movable discharge device for the nails, astop device having a movable body-portion, a carrier member movable uponthe body-portion, and a stop member movable upon the carrier member andarranged to contact with the nails upon the discharge device.

7. In a nail-distributor, a movable discharge device for the nails, astop device having a body-portion, means for adjusting the body-portiontoward and from the dis charge device, a carrier member yieldable uponthe body-portion, stop member movable upon the carrier member, and meansfor adjusting the stop member upon the carrier member in a differentdirection from that furnished by the adjustment of the bodyportion.

8. In a nail-distributor, a rotatable discharge-roll havingnail-receiving openings and a nail-directing surface to which the nailspass from the openings, a stop member arranged to receive contact of theforward extremities of the nails while said extremities are upon thedirecting surface, and means arranged to impart to the stop membermovements in a plurality of directions.

9. In a nail-distributor, a rotatable discharge-roll havingnail-receiving openings and a nail-directing surface to which tlie nailspass from the openings, and a stop member movable over the surfacetoward and from the openings, said member also being movable toward andfrom the surface.

10. In a nail-distributor, a rotatable discharge-roll havingnail-receiving openings and a directing surface inclined downwardly inthe direction of travel of the nails, a stop member movable over thesurface in a generally horizontal direction, and means arranged toadjust the member toward and from the directing surface independently ofsuch horizontal movement.

11. In a nail-distributor, a rotatable discharge-roll havingnail-receiving openings and a nail-directing surface to which the nailspass from the openings, a stop member yieldably mounted to move over thesurface from the openings, means arranged to adjust the stop member.toward and from the openings, and means arranged to adjust the stopmember toward and from the surface.

12. In a nail-distributor, a rotatable discharge-roll havingnail-receiving openings and a nail-directing surface to which the nailspass from the openings, a stop incinhcr yieldablv mounted for movementby the disch; 'e-roll from the openings, means arranged to adjust thestop member toward. and from the openings, andineansarranged to adjustthe stop member toward and from the surface.

13. In a nail-distributor, a rotatable discharge-roll, a movable plateadjacent thereto, and a bar inountedto slide upon the plate, said barhaving niovable upon it a portion for contact With the nails.

I In a nail-distributor. a rotatable dis- 'geroll, a movable plateadjacent thereplate, and a bar pivoted upon the carrierhai' for contactwith the nails.

15. in a nail-distributor, a rotatable discharge-mil, a movable plateadjacent thereto. means for moving the plate toward and ier-bar mountedto slide upon thefrom the roll,- a carrier-bar yieldable upon the plateand movable by contact With the roll, a bar pivoted upon the carrier-barfor contact with the nails, and connections between the carrier'bar andcontact-bar for H'lOVillfI the latter.

l6. .ln a naildistributor, a rotatable discharge-roll havingnail-receiving openings and a directing surface inclined downwardly inthe direction 01 travel of the nails, 21 IIIOV- 1 ate adjacent to theroll, means ar- =cd to adjust the plate toward andfrom the openings, acarrier-bar movable upon the plate under the influence of the roll inits rotation, a bar movable upon the carrier-bar over the inclinedsurface and contacting with the nails, and connections between thecarrier-bar and contactbar for raising and lowering the latter.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

ALBERT E. HUDSON.

